Karl Marx 
Public Statement to Editors of the English Press 

The People's Paper. 
Nr. 26, 30. Oktober 1852 

The Cologne Trials. 

(To the Editor of The "People's Paper. ") 

Sir—The undersigned call your attention to the attitude of the Prussian Press, 
including even the most reactionary papers, such as the "Neue Preussische 
Zeitung” during the pending trial of the Communists at Cologne, and to the 
honourable discretion they observe, at a moment where scarcely a third part 
of the witnesses have been examined, whennone of the produced documents 
have been verified, and not a word has fallen yet from the defence. While 
those papers, at the worst, represent the Cologne prisoners and the under- 
signed, their London friends, in accordance with the public accuser, as 
"dangerous conspirators who alone are responsible for the whole history of 
Europe of the latter four years, and for all the revolutionary commotions 
of 1848 and 1849"—there are in London two public organs, the "Times" and 
the "Daily News" which really have not hesitated to represent the Cologne 
prisoners and the undersigned as a "gang of sturdy beggars," swindlers, etc. 
The undersigned address to the English public the same demand which the 
defensors of the accused have addressed to the public in Germany—to sus- 
pend their judgment, and to wait for the end of the trials. Were they to give 
further explanations at the present time, the Prussian government might 
obtain the means of baffling a revelation of police-tricks, perjury, forgery 
of documents, falsification of dates, thefts, etc., unprecedented even in 
the records of Prussian political justice. When that revelation shall have 
been made in the course of the present proceedings, public opinion in Eng- 
land will know how to qualify the anonymous scribes of the "Times" and 
"Daily News," who constitute themselves the advocates and mouthpieces 
of the most infamous and subaltern government spies. 
We are, Sir, yours fraternally, 

F Engels, 

F. Freiligrath, 

K. Marx, 
London, October 28th. W. Wolff. 

426